These are the laws and the rules, the measurements and the foundations, the statutes and the directions that the sages of the Mishnah received, the traditions of the laws of the Holy Tongue, said to the sons of Israel. The words of the LORD are pure words, guarded and counted, as silver tried in a crucible on the earth, refined seven times¹; weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance². He built a fortified wall for the Torah, a bolt and doors around the wall; the name of the LORD is a strong tower³, the Holy Temple of the King. All glorious is the king's daughter within the palace⁴; The law of the LORD is perfect⁵. The tradition and the Oral Torah that was inherited from Sinai - Oral Torah upon the Written Torah it was established; on many waters which depend on rules of logic and phraseology it dwells. The revealed and the hidden, the clarified and the revealed, the Torah and the commandment, the written and the mystical, the reading and the tradition, the expressions and the words, the Written Law and the Oral Law, all of these are connected together, and together they will be complete. The literal meaning and the homiletically interpreted meaning converge and never diverge; none shall want her mate⁶. And on the Tablets of Testimony which were written by the finger of the Living God upon them and upon them all of the words which the LORD spoke through Moses, from this and from that they were written. And they read in the book, in the Law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading⁷. All of the laws and judgements, the generalities and particulars that Moses received from Sinai and passed down generation after generation to the elders, prophets, holy ministers, and through these words the LORD formed a covenant with Israel, all given from one Shepherd to one receiver, one God gave them; one leader uttered them from the mouth of the Master of all creation, blessed be He; also make your ears like auricles and acquire for yourself an understanding heart⁸ and eyes to see and ears to hear. And perceive with your eyes and with your ears and acquire for yourself an understanding heart and eyes to see and ears to hear. And perceive with your eyes and with your ears; hear and your heart will discern to know and to understand; delve and delve into it, for all is in it; grow old and worn with it; do not budge from it⁹. The sages of blessed memory agree with the linguists that there is no root in the Holy Tongue that has more than three letters. And they say that four-letter roots are composed of two or three words, and that some of them are derived from other languages.

All words in the Hebrew language are composed of at least one root, which contains the essence of the word’s meaning. Roots are characterized by a sequence of consonants called “radicals”¹⁰.

footnotes: ¹ Psalms 12:7. ² Isaiah 40:12. ³ Proverbs 18:10. ⁴ Psalms 45:14. ⁵ Psalms 19:8. ⁶ Isaiah 34:16. ⁷ Nehemiah 8:8. ⁸ Babylonian Talmud Hagigah 3b. ⁹ Ethics of the Fathers 5:21. ¹⁰ N. Bronznick and L. Uveeler, Ha-Yesod Fundamentals of Hebrew, Feldheim Publishers, 1998.